An Old Favorite

When Brad’s kids were younger, their favorite place to go for dinner was a chain of restaurants called Buca di Beppo.  It may be a national chain, I’m not sure… I know there are at least several in California and one in Vegas at the Excalibur Hotel.  Anyway, it’s a family dining type of Italian restaurant; the plates are huge and meant to be shared, the atmosphere is red checkered table cloths and hundreds of kitschy old photos and posters crammed on the walls.  And the favorite dish that everyone (except me, being vegetarian) ALWAYS ordered was the chicken marsala.

Then one fateful night I decided that I would try to make a chicken marsala from scratch at home to rival the family’s Buca di Beppo standard.  Being vegetarian, this is always a tricky thing cooking meat for other people since you can’t taste test along the way… But thankfully the recipe was a success!  Though I never enjoyed handling meat of course, I did make a real chicken version of this dish for many years with rave reviews from Brad and the kids.  Now that Brad is no longer eating chicken though, I had the glorious opportunity to make a vegetarian version that (finally) I could enjoy as well!  I love the smell of the cooking mushrooms, the marsala, the sage.  It always looked delicious, and now I can finally attest that it is indeed SUPERB.

Why this Isn’t Vegan

It’s worth stating that my first attempt with this recipe was to make it vegan.  I really did try.  I may try some more in the future, but unfortunately the item that just didn’t carry over was the heavy cream.  I tried an unsweetened oat milk creamer which was just awful, whatever you do, don’t waste an otherwise good batch of sauce with that additive!  I have yet to try cashew cream, I am not overly optimistic that it will behave as regular cream does in the sauce.  You can replace the butter with vegan butter if you choose, I have made that with overall success.  Regular butter will brown the shallots a bit differently, I did notice that.  I try my best to use as few animal products as I can when I cook and bake but sometimes, unfortunately, there’s just not a great replacement option yet.  But I am confident that somewhere, right now, there is a food scientist working hard to create a plant-based equivalent of heavy cream.

Fake Chicken Tastes Like… Chicken!

These days there are tons of vegetarian-friendly chicken alternatives out there – breaded, not breaded, tenders, cutlets, strips, patties, you name it.  I have even seen other bloggers post recipes for making your own fake chicken at home… but so far I just don’t have the patience to do that.  I mean, A+ to them for effort, but why work for several hours to make something that I can buy a better-tasting version of at the store, and have ready in 5 minutes?  For this recipe, I use an old favorite of Brad’s – the Gardein brand “Lightly Breaded Turk’y Cutlets” (these come with gravy, which is yummy, but I often set those packets aside and use the cutlets for other purposes).  In fact, there’s really nothing that makes them specifically “turkey” except the gravy packets.  You can probably find Gardein meat substitutes in your local grocery store or at a Target near you.  The cutlets are super easy to prepare, basically just heat and eat – I put the frozen pieces in a nonstick pan until cook them until they’re golden on both sides, which takes about ten minutes.  It’s certainly easier and less time-consuming (and less gross) than having to pound the living daylights out of real chicken breasts trying to make them thin so they’ll cook evenly.  But honestly, you can use whatever meat substitute you choose.  If you find one you love, please mention it in the comments and spread the good word!

Pasta Makes Everything Better

Oh noodles, how I love thee!  While this recipe is basically for a sauce to go on “chicken” it also tastes mighty fine on pasta.  If I’m making this dish for Brad, I invariably put the “chicken” and sauce on a bed of fusilli or rotini or even egg noodles.  I highly recommend the combo for a hearty main course, and when that happens you don’t want to be short on sauce.  I estimated this recipe to serve two people with the assumption that you’ll be wanting some sauce on your pasta as well.  BUT if you’ve got a big eater or are cooking for three people or more, I’d suggest doubling the sauce since it’s better to have too much than too little!  I have also been known to take leftover cold sauce the next day and use it as a sandwich spread or just as a dip.  Take a piece of good bread, get in there and scoop out some creaminess and mushrooms and enjoy.

Important Notes

A few quick things that I think make a big difference in this recipe.

1. A good, richly flavored unsalted vegetable stock or broth (they’re essentially the same thing when there’s no meat involved).  My favorite so far is the vegetable stock from Kitchen Basics.  If you can only find salted stock, omit the salt in the recipe and add it to taste if need be.
2. Fresh sage.  Definitely grab a package of the fresh herb instead of using dried.  It really adds a lovely flavor dimension to the sauce.
3. DRY marsala wine.  You can get the cheap stuff, no need to splurge on a nice bottle here.  Just be sure you don’t get the sweet marsala that’s often used in desserts!
4. Lemon juice.  This sounds a bit weird to add in at the end, and you may think you can skip the fresh lemon juice and the sauce will be just as good.  In my opinion, that is just not the case!  If you taste-test before and after adding the lemon you’ll see that it adds so much brightness and dimension to the flavor.  I’d argue it’s one of the most important ingredients in the whole thing.  But if you’re hesitant about it, taste-test before adding!  Scoop out a small amount out of sauce and set it aside, add a few drops of lemon juice and mix, then see the difference for yourself.